Skip to main content
Salad

Russian Salad

A salad of mixed vegetables, olives, hard boiled eggs, beets, peas, olive liquid, mayonnaise, garnished with celery leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Russian Salad

Why it works: Peas and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,066 recipes. Both carry (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol, which smells freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes. The science ↓

Russian Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble

  1. Add the can of peas to the mixed vegetables, if using.

  2. Stir in the chopped olives.

Decorate and dress

  1. Decorate the salad with sliced hard-boiled eggs and cut beets.

  2. Drizzle a little olive liquid over the salad.

  3. Top with mayonnaise sauce.

  4. Garnish with celery leaves and place a sprig in the center.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Peas + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

  2. Olive + celerytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Peas + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Olive + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,568 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Peas + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mixed vegetables
Form the bulk of the salad and provide its main texture.
Hard boiled eggs
Add richness and a soft, creamy contrast to the crisp vegetables.
Beets
Add color and an earthy sweetness, staying firm for texture.
Mayonnaise sauce
Binds the salad and adds fat, moisture and creaminess.

Swap the peas

The recipe marks peas as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, egg, sauce, celery):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, egg, sauce, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Chicken SaladChicken Salad623 recipesSalad DressingSalad Dressing491 recipesTomato SaladTomato Salad179 recipesCold SlawCold Slaw160 recipes